Legislation to amend the school consolidation law was enacted on the last day of the legislative session, April 18, and immediately signed into law by Governor John Baldacci. The House approved the bill by a vote of 92-41, and the Senate voted 22-12 in favor of the legislation.

"The final product was the closest thing to the status quo that the governor could ram through the legislature," says Senator Kevin Raye of Perry, who voted against the measure. Although the legislature had previously passed a bill that would allow for the formation of "super unions," that measure had been vetoed by the governor, and the Senate failed to override the veto. Raye says the result of the legislation that was enacted is that school unions will not survive. Although the bill will allow for alternative organizational structures for regional school units, Raye notes that the commissioner of education will have the authority not to approve any such proposals.

The bill, LD 2323, allows local communities to create their own cost-sharing agreements; removes the 2 mill minimum requirement; allows minimum special education subsidy receivers to remain eligible for minimum subsidy if they join a new regional school unit; and includes other technical corrections and clarifications. LD 2323 also gives the commissioner of education the ability to approve a plan for an alternative organizational structure if the plan fits within the purposes of the original reorganization law.

Most area schools now belong to a school union, and the loss of the school union governance model is seen by many school officials as a stumbling block in the consolidation law. They fear that towns will lose local control of schools as they surrender decisions to a larger school board on which the town may not have any representation. "It's a setback for those who want to maintain local control over our area schools," says Raye.

Raye also points out that the legislation requires a single contract for teachers and staff within the new regional school units. "When that happens, schools in Dennysville or Eastport will have to pay what Calais and Baileyville are paying." He's heard an estimate that it would cost $600,000 a year to bring all of the teachers up to the same pay scale in the new district for the area covering School Unions 104, 106 and 107.

After vetoing the earlier bill, LD 1932, Baldacci had submitted legislation that included the non-controversial elements of the measure. Raye then offered an amendment to that bill to allow for regional school unions, to permit towns to withdraw from a school unit and for school districts to dissolve themselves and to allow school units with fewer than the 1,200-student minimum if the population density of the district is below 50 people per square mile. That amendment was defeated in the Senate 19 to 16. The new law, though, does allow an exception for some units of 1,000 to 1,200 students in isolated rural areas.

When the Senate voted on the bill that did pass, Raye told the legislators that they were "almost validating the serious errors they made a year ago" when the regionalization law was enacted. "I think this will breathe new energy into the repeal effort," he predicts of efforts to overturn the consolidation law. "The legislature failed to address the major problems that made the law unworkable."

However, Baldacci, in signing the bill, praised the legislators for passing the law. "They understand that the need for reform and the need for less administration in our schools is real. The original law needed some changes to make it successful for all of Maine's school districts, and this bill makes those changes."

Although not allowing for regional school unions, LD 2323 authorizes the commissioner of education to approve a plan for an alternative organizational structure if the plan satisfies the purposes of the school administrative reorganization law, including: consolidation of system administration; consolidation of special education administration, transportation administration and administration of business functions; adoption of a core curriculum; and adoption of consistent school policies, calendars and collective bargaining agreements.

The bill moves the November 4 deadline for communities to approve reorganization plans by referendum to January 30, 2009, and adjusts related deadlines accordingly. It extends to 14 days the amount of time municipalities may take before holding a budget validation referendum after the school budget meeting. The bill does not include the one-year delay in the budget validation referendum requirement that was in the original LD 1932, so all units must use the budget validation referendum process this year.